Keynote Speakers

Iteration and Innovation in Education

Jaime Casap, Global Education Evangelist, Google

Saturday, April 29th 3rd Annual FutureNOW! Conference Keynote Speaker

As the world gets more connected, it also gets more complex. We now operate on a global scale and our job in education is to help learners develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities they will need to thrive in this new environment. We are preparing them to solve global problems we haven’t defined yet, using technology that hasn’t been invented, in roles that do not exist. To thrive in this new era, learners need to know how to learn, problem solve, iterate, create, collaborate, communicate, and to think critically. What we need more than anything in education is a culture of innovation and iteration in order to build new learning models supported and enabled by technology to foster student focused learning.

About Jaime Casap

Jaime Casap is the Global Education Evangelist at Google. Jaime evangelizes the power and potential of technology and the web as enabling and supporting tools in pursuit of promoting inquiry-driven project-based learning models. Working with the Google for Education Team, Jaime collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders focused on building innovation and iteration into our education policies and practices. He speaks on education, technology, innovation, and generation z, at events around the world.

In addition to his role at Google, Jaime serves on a number of boards, including Inquiry Schools Dot Org, Seed Spot NEXT, and Mi Familia Vota. He is part of the Phoenix Union School District Team, who created the Phoenix Coding Academy, an inquiry-based high school designed with computer science as the core language students use in pursuit of the problems they want to solve. Jaime is also an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches classes on policy, innovation, and leadership.

We all know the importance of understanding your “Why” in the world of education. Strategic visioning and knowing Where is your Why makes all the difference in moving from reform to revolution. Asking ‘Why’ in a school-centric paradigm will give you iterative results of yesteryear. Formulating your why inside of a learner-centered paradigm results in revolutionary transformation of an entire system. When we put learning at the center, organizational change moves from going slow to go fast, to going fast to go fast. Learning organizations are organic, self organizing, adaptive and required for the future we are going to create.

We live in an age of acceleration, where buzz words have become commonplace in the attempt for people to “keep up” and to stay “relevant.” But how do we get beyond buzz words to the actual work that needs to be done in this environment? How might we utilize tips & tricks from the Design Thinking Process to help to build a genuine culture of innovation on a school campus.

About Eric Chagala

Eric Chagala is the founding principal of the Vista Innovation & Design Academy (VIDA). He believes that all kids need a place to matter, that schools have souls & those souls need to be nurtured, and that our actions say what we believe about kids.

Eric’s belief in Design Thinking for education is deeply rooted in his dissertation that focused on the critical resiliency of high achieving Latino youth. This research solidified the knowledge (not just belief) that schools have the power to either defeat or to perpetuate the status-quo of a neighborhood.

Eric has spoken at several events to tell the story of VIDA, to share about Design Thinking, and to talk about what it takes for school leaders to build a true school culture that will be ripe for innovation. In addition, Eric is an adjunct faculty member of the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, a Deeper Learning Fellow, and is an Apprentice Coach with Stanford University’s “School Re-Tool” work at the famed Stanford University “d.School” (Institute of Design).